North Korea launches rocket

Per The Wall Street Journal, "North Korea launched a multi-stage rocket Sunday in defiance of international pressure."

Nearly 15 minutes before this news was confirmed by major news outlets such as BBC, CNN, and Reuters, @jasohill, a photographer of Hachimantai, Japan, broke the news to Twitter.

1. 
   jasohill This is for real folks. NORTH KOREA has just launched it missile. 05 Apr 2009 from TwitterFox

Popular Twitter news service BNO was one minute behind that tweet with its first tweet on the news:

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   BreakingNews FLASH -- TOKYO -- JAPANESE GOVERNMENT: NORTH KOREA HAS LAUNCHED ROCKET 05 Apr 2009 from BNO Headquarters

@jasohill went on to provide these first-hand accounts from Japan:

1. 
   jasohill We have alarm bells going off here in Hachimantai. Has launched its rocket 05 Apr 2009 from TwitterFox
2. 
   jasohill Warning alarms going off. We have a rocket heading over Japan 05 Apr 2009 from TwitterFox
3. 
   jasohill This is not a false alarm. The North Korean rocket has been launched 05 Apr 2009 from TwitterFox

Other Twitterers in the region noted the news, many of them breathing a sigh of relief when it became apparent they were out of harm's way.

1. 
   akikohayashi (Tokyo, Japan) Missile: It's gone. Relieved. But how many more times do we have to experience the similar situation? This is enough. 05 Apr 2009 from web
2. 
   kyotonils (Kyoto, Japan) NK launches missile and I'm 2 stories undereground in retail bunker (Hankyu). Commerce seemingly unaffected. Chou creme hoarding imminent... 05 Apr 2009 from mobile web
3. 
   SirSteven (Suzhou, China) North Korea has fired off its rocket-missile-satellite thingy, and no-one bothered to shoot it down... *yawn* 05 Apr 2009 from DestroyTwitter
4. 
   Mitchell1986 (Cheongju, South Korea) The missile has been launched.....and the world didn't end (at least for us in Asia)...now to move on.... 05 Apr 2009 from web
5. 
   kkongchi (Seoul, South Korea) I'm living in Seoul, Korea and All Media are saying on N.Korea's Rocket. but It seems that they launched Not Missile but Satellite. 05 Apr 2009 from TweetDeck
6. 
   naotakahashi (Gumma, Japan) Seemingly North Korea's "Flying Object" flew over Japan without any droppings. 05 Apr 2009 from web

North Korea launches rocket

North Korea launch imminent

Per Sky News, Pyongyang's official news agency has announced that preparations are complete and it will launch a satellite "soon." The move would be in defiance of international calls for resistance in recent days.

Voice of America foreign correspondent Steven Herman (@W7VOA) is reporting via Twitter that the launch could happen at any minute, as 2:00 GMT (the current time as of this post) opens a window North Korean officials have given for it.

The latest reports have heightened the fears of Japanese Twitterers:

1. 
   prophotopete (Japan) Apparently North Korea has a bloody missile aimed in our direction and are getting ready to launch it soon. Any news in the US? 03 Apr 2009 from web
2. 
   dialogjapan (Tokyo, Japan) North Korea says to rocket launch imminent. Is it a missile to Japan ? so much afraid that if it hits anywhere in Japan. http://news.go ... 04 Apr 2009 from twhirl
3. 
   japchap (Japan) North Korea's supposedly launching their "satellite" into orbit... or is it really a satellite? Crazy dictators stirring the pot... 04 Apr 2009 from Twidget
4. 
   mickstokyo (Tokyo, Japan) scared of north korea's rocket!!!! 04 Apr 2009 from web
5. 
   shita (Yokohima, Japan) North Korea is ready.... 04 Apr 2009 from twitterrific

North Korea launch imminent

Featured TwitPic: Parade in the streets of Shizuoka, Japan

"Try that again...It's festival time in Shizuoka!" (Posted by @slicesofsoup)

Featured TwitPic: Parade in the streets of Shizuoka, Japan

Japan outlasts Korea to win World Baseball Classic

Per SI.com, Ichiro Suzuki hit a two-run single in the top of the 10th inning to lift Japan over its rivals 5-3 in the World Baseball Classic finals. This came after Korea forced extra innings with a run in the bottom of the 9th with two outs.

Hundreds of twitterers followed along during the game. It only took seconds for reaction to spill in once the score went final.

The first to tweet the result was @mikeplugh.

@mikeplugh (Akita City, Japan ): Wow! Japan does it AGAIN!! Congrats! #kingsofbaseball #wbc #champions #yakyu



Here's some tweets from Japanese supporters:


@pjaficionado (Okinawa, Japan): Japan just took the WBC....やった！！！



@toshisato (Nanpeidaicho, Japan): Congratulations to Samurai Japan!! it was the most exciting baseball game I've ever seen! #WBC



@miyagawa (San Francisco, Calif.): YEAHHHH!!!!!!!! Japan wins!! #wbc




And tweets from fans of the losing team:

@jinoopan (Bundang, South Korea): Korea lost the WBC, but what a good game.




@jchung (Boston, Mass.): such a depressing way to lose, still buying that korea wbc fitted. sam im not coming to atx if ppl talk [expletive].

Japan outlasts Korea to win World Baseball Classic

Featured TwitPic: Front row at World Baseball Classic

"Sitting front row at world baseball classic with sdsf t shirt on. These players know the science of sport. #wbc" (Japan vs. Cuba in San Diego, Calif., posted by @sdsciencefest, March 15, 2009)

Featured TwitPic: Front row at World Baseball Classic

Featured TwitPic: Flying dolphin in Japan

"Dolphins have terrifying powers." Taken at the Churami Aquarium in Motobu-cho, Okinawa, Japan. (Posted by @ontheborderland, Okinawa, Japan, March 4, 2009)

Featured TwitPic: Flying dolphin in Japan

Google Outage: Twitterverse reacts

Per PC Magazine, Google's own-brand email system Gmail was hit was an outage early on Tuesday morning, a problem which took several hours to resolve. Here's the official Google explanation for this morning's problems.

To show the near-ubiquitous nature of Gmail and Google, here's how 7 Twitter users in 7 different countries responded in 7 different languages (translations by Google, of course!):


@shintajiri (Tokyo, Japan) Gmail 世界規模で障害？ まだ影響は出ていないみたい (Gmail failure on a global scale? I still will not affect the)




@jarofed (Kiev, Ukraine) за результатами сьогоднішніх ранкових подій Gmail тепер потрібно називати не інакше, ніж Gfail... (the results of today's morning events Gmail now need to call no differently than Gfail)




@ladyrasta (Sao Paolo, Brazil) é o apocalipse chegando...(tenho medo de ter emails importantes no gmail e não poder acessá-los...) (the apocalypse is coming ... (afraid to have important emails in gmail and can not access them ...)




@Carcadons (Bologna, Italy) ha avuto attimi di panico con Gmail down per ben due ore. (had moments of panic with Gmail down for two hours ....)




@bonarni (Copenhagen, Denmark) 113.000.000 mennesker verden over kan ikke bruge GMail lige nu. Google "is working hard to resolve this problem" - forståeligt nok..! (113,000,000 people around the world can not use GMail right now. Google "is working hard to resolve this problem" - understandably enough ..!)




@tassaramar (Buenos Aires, Argentina) A la mañana no pude entrar a Gmail y pensé en formatear la compu. Resulta que el problema era de Google, pero en su blog no decía nada..(In the morning I could not go to Gmail and I thought of formatting the computer. It turns out that the problem was Google, but his blog did not say anything ..)




@marccc (Paris, France) Il parait que Gmail était down. J'ai rien vu. Ca a du bon de dormir toute la journée ! (It seems that Gmail was down. I have not seen anything. It's good to sleep all day!)

Google Outage: Twitterverse reacts

Japanese minister resigns after accusations

Per The International Herald Tribune, Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa resigned from his position on Tuesday, after "facing ridicule and criticism for slurring and yawning his way through a news conference at the weekend Group of 7 meeting in Rome."

The article added that it was a "major setback for Prime Minister Taro Aso," whose approval rating has plummeted to 9.7 percent amidst Japan's worsening recession.

Four Twitter users in Japan tweeted about these developments, all via iPhones which listed their exact locations.

@feffrey (Akasaka, Japan): Nakagawa is off to the hospital to check out why he had such a strange reaction to the "medicine". http://is.gd/jMoM The answer: it was wine


@feffrey (Akasaka, Japan): And Nakagawa resigns. No alcohol problem mentioned but at least Japan no longer has a drunk finance minister. http://is.gd/jN5p


@toshisato (Shibuya, Japan): I believe Mr. Nakagawa, Finance Minister of Japan, WAS drunk during the conference http://tinyurl.com/an9yyw


@jlist (Kitakaruizawa, Japan): Okay, Aso-san has a lower rating than Bush had? Um, what? http://tinyurl.com/aotlk4



@havill (Shinyurigaoka, Japan): JP needs a new PM fast. Aso makes Bush look good. If it must be the LDP, I hope it's Koike.

Japanese minister resigns after accusations

Toyota hit harder than first thought

Per the Japan Times, Toyota Motor Corp. announced Friday it expects to sustain a group operating loss of ¥350 billion ($3.9 billion) in 2008, three times more than initially projected. It marks the company's biggest loss in a year since 1937.

Only one person in Japan has tweeted about this so far.

@kei_shimada (Shibuya, Japan): on Performance: Toyota just announced they're positively in the red this FY, but McDJ, Suntory, Nintendo are forecasting all time high.


There was a larger response to the news internationally.

@michaelq (Mildura, Australia): @wolfcat I dont get how Toyota and GM can sell almost 9 mill cars each and lose money. Side note - KIA and Hyundai both making profits.

@JonathanHutter (Portland, Ore.): Toyota's got a brand that can withstand net loss. Because they've always made good cars. Can't say that about all the automakers. (0 left)


@dyphan (Hoffman Estates, Ill.): It's so bad, even Toyota is losing money. First time since 1950. http://tinyurl.com/cd4y5h

Toyota hit harder than first thought

Volcano erupts in Japan

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Volcano erupts in Japan